The gist: A recent clinical trial found that positron emission tomography (PET) scans could be used to predict how well a patient will respond to neoadjuvant (pre-surgery) treatment with chemotherapy and trastuzumab (Herceptin). Doctors might recommend a change in treatment to a patient whose PET scans show that current treatment isn’t working. In the study, researchers treated women with early-stage, HER2-positive breast cancer. Based on PET scans, the researchers were able to predict which patients would still have signs of an invasive tumor after treatment. They also found that adding the drug bevacizumab (Avastin) to the treatment plan could improve responses for some of these patients.

Editor’s note: This article describes the results of a clinical trial—a research study with volunteer patients. The goal of the trial was to compare two different treatment approaches for non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with mutations in the EGFR gene. One treatment combined the drugs erlotinib and bevacizumab, and the other treatment was simply erlotinib alone. Based on the results, the researchers say that erlotinib plus bevacizumab could be a new standard treatment for people with NSCLC with EGFR mutations.

“The authors aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of the combination of erlotinib and bevacizumab compared with erlotinib alone in patients with non–squamous NSCLC with activating EGFR mutation–positive disease. Erlotinib plus bevacizumab combination could be a new first–line regimen in EGFR mutation–positive NSCLC. Further investigation of the regimen is warranted.”

“Because of its rapid growth rate, many women with triple-negative breast cancer receive chemotherapy to try to shrink it before undergoing surgery. With the standard treatment, the cancer is eliminated from the breast and lymph nodes in the armpit before surgery in about one third of women. This is referred to as a pathologic complete response (pCR). In patients who achieve pCR, the cancer is much less likely to come back, spread to other parts of the body, and cause the patient’s death than if the cancer survives the chemotherapy.

“Sikov and his collaborators studied the addition of other drugs – carboplatin and/or bevacizumab – to the standard treatment regimen to see if they could increase response rates. More than 440 women from cancer centers across the country enrolled in this randomized clinical trial.

” ‘Adding either of these medications significantly increased the percentage of women who achieved a pCR with the preoperative treatment. We hope that this means fewer women will relapse and die of their cancer, though the study is not large enough to prove this conclusively. Of the two agents we studied, we are more encouraged by the results from the addition of carboplatin, since it was associated with fewer and less concerning additional side effects than bevacizumab,’ Sikov explains.”

Editor’s note: This article describes the results of a clinical trial—a research study with volunteer patients.

Editor’s note: This article discusses the results of a clinical trial—a research study with volunteer patients. The goal of the trial was to compare two drugs—bevacizumab and cetuximab—when they were added to the standard chemotherapy combo FOLFIRI. All patients who participated in the trial had metastatic colorectal cancer. The researchers found that patients treated with FOLFIRI plus cetuximab had longer overall survival times that patients treated with FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab. The results differ from those from another recent study, which found no significant difference between the two treatments.

“Adding cetuximab (Erbitux) to the standard first-line FOLFIRI chemotherapy regimen resulted in longer overall survival compared with FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab (Avastin) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, according to results of the phase III FIRE-3 trial published this month in the Lancet.

“This result was seen in patients with a wild-type exon 2 KRAS gene. The longer overall survival was observed despite there being no significant difference in objective response between the two study groups.

“A new blood test allowing doctors to predict which ovarian cancer patients will respond to particular types of treatment is a step closer following a new study by Manchester scientists.

“Researchers from The University of Manchester and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust – both part of Manchester Cancer Research Centre – say the test could be developed and used in hospitals within the next few years.

“It would mean medics could see which patients could benefit from blood vessel-targeting drugs – such as bevacizumab – in addition to conventional therapy. Meanwhilehile others who are not going to benefit would be spared the time and side effects associated with having the drug. The test would also help to reduce the cost to the NHS.”

Editor’s note: This article describes the results of a clinical trial—a research study with volunteer patients. The goal of the trial was to test a new treatment for women with advanced, recurrent cervical cancer. The treatment combines the drugs pemetrexed and cisplatin. The results were promising: the new treatment appeared to be safe and effective. More research needs to be done to determine just how effective it is. Also, scientists are interested in testing whether it is even more effective when combined with the targeted drug bevacizumab (Avastin).

“The combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin appeared safe and effective in women with advanced, persistent or recurrent carcinoma of the cervix, according to results of a phase 2 trial.

“ ‘This combination should be further developed in the treatment of cervical cancer,’ David Scott Miller, MD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues wrote. ‘Given that it may be less toxic than and as active as cisplatin plus paclitaxel, and that it can be combined with bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech), comparison of cisplatin–pemetrexed plus bevacizumab with cisplatin–paclitaxel plus bevacizumab would be appropriate.’ ”

Editor’s note: This article describes the results of a clinical trial—a research study with volunteer patients. The goal of the trial was to compare four different treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). All patients took a combination of chemotherapy drugs; either FOLFIRI [which combines folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan] or FOLFOX [folinic acid, 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin]. Patients also took a targeted drug alongside the chemo; either bevacizumab (aka Avastin) or cetuximab (Erbitux). All four treatment combinations resulted in similar survival times—a median of 29 months. Compared to other clinical trials, this is a relatively long survival time. Based on these results, oncologists will now have more options for treating their patients according to patients’ preferences and side effects.

“Patients with KRAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) receiving first-line treatment with a chemotherapy backbone plus bevacizumab or cetuximab survived for a median of 29 months, the longest median survival time reported in a major trial of these severely ill patients.

“ ‘What this tells us is that either FOLFIRI [folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan] or FOLFOX [folinic acid, 5-fluorouracil and oxaliplatin] with either bevacizumab or cetuximab are perfectly reasonable options,’ said Alan P. Venook, MD, the Madden Family Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of California, San Francisco.”

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new use for Avastin (bevacizumab) to treat patients with persistent, recurrent or late-stage (metastatic) cervical cancer.

“Cervical cancer grows in the tissues of the lower part of the uterus known as the cervix. It commonly occurs when human papillomaviruses (HPV), a virus that spreads through sexual contact, cause cells to become cancerous. Although there are two licensed vaccines available to prevent many types of HPV that can cause cervical cancer, the National Cancer Institute estimates that 12,360 American women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,020 will die from the disease in 2014.

“Avastin works by interfering with the blood vessels that fuel the development of cancerous cells. The new indication for cervical cancer is approved for use in combination with chemotherapy drugs paclitaxel and cisplatin or in combination with paclitaxel and topotecan.”

Editor’s note: Researchers organized a clinical trial with volunteer patients to compare two treatments for people with metastatic colorectal cancer. All patients in the trial took a chemotherapy treatment called FOLFIRI. (FOLFIRI combines the drugs fluorouracil, leucovorin, and irinotecan.) Some of the patients were also given the drug cetuximab, and the rest took the drug bevacizumab along with FOLFIRI. The patients who took FOLFIRI plus cetuximab survived significantly longer than the patients who took FOLFIRI plus bevacizumab.

“In this open-label trial, 592 patients with KRAS exon 2 codon 12/13 wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer aged 18 to 75 years from centers in Germany and Austria were randomly assigned between January 2007 and September 2012 to receive FOLFIRI plus either cetuximab (n = 297) or bevacizumab (n = 295). The primary endpoint was objective response in the intention-to-treat population. The study has completed recruitment, but patient follow-up is ongoing.”